March/April 2014

We have a wee playgroup in our ward that mostly just meets at the building until the weather picks up and then we head out to different parks in Newberg.  Well, we thought it would be nice to switch things up a little and take the children to the visitor's center up by the Portland Temple a couple of months back.  We forewarned the missionaries up there that we would be coming, which I think they greatly appreciated.  They had brought in extra Sisters to speak to the kids and had a few wee short films ready to show us too.  It was really lovely and all the wee ones seemed to really enjoy chatting to the missionaries and exploring to their hearts content.  It was a pouring day, but we managed to find a sheltered picnic area and park where we ate lunch before heading to a wee frozen yogurt place nearby.  

Jack and Peter were sitting with their good friends, Henry and Charlotte Platt.  And the wee girls were sitting with Caleb Yates and his cousin, Samantha.

Just felt the need to document more of our crazy bag lady! Hilarious wee Olive.  She has a total of 5 bags in the pic here on the right.  It's true what my friend, Sherri, says, I do kinda want to keep buying her bags and purses just to watch her carrying them all around.  It's just so hilarious to watch her.

There was a day Jack came home from school and he was really upset.  His best friend had left to a new school earlier that week (which I think had heightened his emotions) and the school is having a 'million minute challenge' that they had been giving out awards for.  Jack had been trying so hard to read as much as possible each week to earn a prize, but since they only chose one child from each class to win he fell short and wasn't it.  I'm sure there were many kids that had been upset by this, but Jack being a sensitive wee soul had carried the heart break of it with him all day long.  When he got home he was in tears.  It broke my heart to see him so sad and know that he'd been upset all day.  Well, Jack loves to dress up and so, we all got into our different costumes and played hard for the rest of the afternoon to cheer Jack up.  He chose to be a singing cowboy and we loved listening to him play on his Dad's ukulele.  He's a really special wee boy.

I've just finished teaching art classes from my home and I hope to start doing some more again during the summer holidays.  I ran it once a week, for six weeks and had six wee kids coming along to it. Course, then I had my own four here too, so ten in all.  It was busy, but fun. I've learned a lot from the experience and hopefully the next time I do it I will enjoy it even more as I work out all of the wee kinks to make it run as smoothly as possible.  The boys and the wee girls helped me prep for the classes each week.  We made demo pieces to show the kids and I think Jack and Peter really loved knowing what we were going to do before the rest of the kids.

Ryan's sister, Callie, is having her baby boy up here in the Newberg Providence Hospital.  She's due in July and so her visits for appointments are getting more frequent.  It's been fun having Miss Zoe over more often to play; these cousins of hers really love having her around.  I really love being an auntie too. I feel sad that I don't get to be much of an aunt to my gorgeous nieces and nephews overseas.  It kinda kills me actually.

We used to spend a lot of time in our local library when I just had the two boys.  When the wee girls came along it we took a fairly long hiatus from going. We went quite often last year, but as soon as the new children's section was completed this year, we've been hooked on going again.  The girls could spend hours flipping through books, playing with the puzzles, and exploring away with the fab new wall piece.

As the weather has begun to pick up we've been darting out to enjoy the sun at every opportunity we can get.  Whether it's washing Dad's car, playing on their bikes and scooters, or spending long hours at parks with picnics, we have been loving it and can't wait until summer is officially here.

We took a day trip out to the children's museum with the rest of Portland in April.  It was packed as it was a holiday day off for the schools. I'm not sure what I was thinking, haha.  It was fine though, hard to keep an eye on all four of the kids myself, but we all managed to get in and out without losing anyone.

March is when the U.K celebrates Mother's Day, and although I don't celebrate then, I still managed to have a really lovely Sunday with my wee lovelies.
It's not too often I'm on the other side of the camera, but I'm happy to have some pics of me with these wee darlings for memories sake.

Peter took a wee music class from a lady in the 2nd ward with some of his wee buddies.  He really enjoyed trying out some interesting and unique instruments from different countries.  While Peter was inside, the wee girls and I would hang out in the lady's nice garden.  They were always quite the riot pretending to be wee explorers and loving the gorgeous flowers she has.

Easter was lovely this year.  The children got thoroughly drenched at the Jaquith Easter egg hunt. The boys enjoyed it in spite of the rain, but not so much the wee girls.  They both wanted me to lift them throughout most of it and I just can't do that for very long periods of time anymore! Ha.  So on our return to the house I stripped them all down to their undies and they sat cozy on the couch watching a movie for a while and warming up.  They absolutely loved it.


We did a wee 'self-timer' photo shoot on the Sunday afternoon following church.  It was so hysterical trying to get all the wee ones to focus on the camera as I darted back and forth about a bazillion times from the camera to the couch for the pic.  I think this one was our best pic and it's not really all that great...I hate how I look in it, but oh well.

The wee ones loved running around the house on Sunday morning searching for their baskets the bunny left.  It brought back great memories of Easter mornings in my house as a kid with my siblings.  We never had baskets, but we always had to search for our one big Easter egg. 

I put together these cute wee animals as part of our Easter decor.  They took a wee bit of time, but they just look gorgeous.  On Easter Monday we went out in the garden for family night and rolled our eggs down the wee hill on the side of the house.  It had started to pour cats and dogs by the time we got outside, but the boys thought the eggs were going faster because of the rain. Ha.

The boys loved the wee kit I had picked up after Easter last year.  It was a brill wee pirate set and I was actually able to get another wee set at 70% off to save for next year.  Our ward and the 2nd ward put on a Passover activity.  Ryan was helping with it and we were able to get a sitter so that we could go enjoy the evening together.  A gentleman from the other ward who grew up Jewish conducted the Passover service.  It was really interesting, we loved trying the unique food and it was great company too.